Louise Peterson was a bit older than me. I knew her here and there from school and some events. She was nice from my encounters, she was always fun to talk to and I considered her a friend. When I was 14 or 15 she started being real introverted. Stopped talkin’ to people, stopped going out, stopped volunteering around the community and everything. Then, the hijackings started. I'll take you back to Walker Creek, 1955. September 16 (according to the archive). I didn't see it for myself but it was the talk of the town. Apparently, some spooky guy in a mask appeared on everyone's TV's during the community updates program on the WCBS. Talked about science fiction monsters taking over the town. A lot of people got scared, a lot of people got worried, and a lot of people were really mad about it. But at the same time it was all sort of unspeakable. Everyone was scared of getting in trouble and nobody really knew what was happening. It was difficult to think about so folks just...stopped thinking about it. Forgot it ever happened.
Then about a month later for the 1955 Harvest Festival, there was another one. This time a girl. One that I did see. I was excited as hell for the festival that night, watching the news to see any scrap of information about what might be coming. And then she appeared on screen. Louise. I still don't really know how she did it. Hijacking TV sounds difficult especially in the 50s. I guess the "hosts" can answer that one. At the end, things didn't look too good for her. After that broadcast I stopped watching the WCBS. I know I've mentioned on this blog that I never really payed attention to it and, well, there's your reason why. Louise disappeared after that. People were even more terrified than they were after the first hijacking and tensions were high. Then, with the snap of their fingers, the WCBS made it all go away. The wording they used was "experimental entertainment program" if I remember correctly. Like the War of the Worlds radio program that caused outrage in the 30's. So just like that, everyone forgot. Even if they didn't believe the WCBS, it was easier to forget. It was less stressful and less terrifying. I know because I did it myself all the way until now. Now there's one last piece to this puzzle I haven't explained. How did I have this recording? Well, believe it or not, a film strip just showed up on my doorstep. I know that explanation sounds disappointing and believe me, I want to know more just as much as you do. It was a few years after the hijacking, after I met Julia but before we got married. I suppose the WCBS had recorded the broadcast for themselves, since recording from TV's wasn't possible for normal folks until later. It's a question that's always haunted me though...who gave it to me? Was it because I was a slight friend of Louise? I had tried my hardest to just forget about all of it before it arrived, and I tried even harder afterwards. Now that I'm here facing the truth, helping Daniel, joining the internet mystery hunter chats, I realized that I have to face it. I shouldn't have been holding it back from y'all and I'm sorry I did. I don't know if it helped but I just wanted to get it out there. There's no point in ignoring it any longer. After getting it, I locked it away in a box in my closet and kept moving it around with me until now. I sent a message to Daniel, managed to ship it to him, he got it converted, and now y'all have seen the same thing I did 65 years ago. Anyway, there's everything I have about that recording. I'm sorry I didn't bring this to y'all sooner. If you have more questions, there's a lot of ways to reach me. - Trevor
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorTrevor Magnil Archives
November 2021
Categories |